Born on September 22: Nick Cave, the Australian mystic is headed your way
The native of Warracknabeat in the state of Victoria (Australia) celebrates his 67th birthday today with "Wild God", a new album that beautifully rehashes his eternal obsessions.
The raw incandescence of his early days has, however, given way to (deceptively) peaceful orchestrations and emaciated ballads in which it is hard to detect an ounce of carefree joy. On "Wild God", his latest album with the Bad Seeds, one of the rare love songs ("O Wow Wow Wow How Wonderful She Is") can be listened to as a heartbreaking testimony of a bygone relationship. The voice we hear at the end of the song is that of Anita Lane, an Australian artist who died in April 2021 and who was briefly (but intensely) Nick Cave's partner in the early 80s. A relationship that had a lasting influence on the musical direction that the Bad Seeds took after emigrating from Australia to London. So Anita Lane deserves this singular epitaph. It's not the most bewitching track of the album, but certainly one of the most personal and exciting of the artist...
Nick Cave: no joker
One thing is certain, the Australian is not what we call a joker. One of his first bands was called The Birthday Party, at the beginning of the 80s. But we wouldn't have laughed much around the cake. It must be said that at that time, the five musicians were running on more than spring water. Since it is extremely perilous to summarize a career as plethoric as Nick Cave's in a few lines, I invite you play to a little game instead. How many times does the artist use the word God on his latest album? Then you will be allowed to send a letter to the jury of the Nobel Prize in Literature in Stockholm asking them why Bob Dylan got the ultimate award (the first singer to be so crowned) and not Nick Cave? Or Leonard Cohen for that matter.
(AK - Photo: Etienne Tordoir)
Photo: Nick Cave closing the TW Classic festival in Werchter (Belgium) in June 2022 (© Etienne Tordoir)
Some Nick Cave concerts near you:
26/27 September: Ziggo Dome - Amsterdam (Netherlands)
22 October: Hallenstadion - Zurich (Switzerland)
30/31 October: Sportpaleis - Antwerp (Belgium)
2 November: First Direct Arena - Leeds (England)
3 November: OO Hydro - Glasgow (Scotland)
5 November: AO Arena - Manchester (England)
6 November: Utilita - Cardiff (Wales)
8/9 November: The 02 - London (England)
12/13 November: 3Arena - Dublin (Ireland)
15 November: Resort Worlds Arena - Birmingham (England)
17 November: Accor Arena - Paris (France)
And next year in the United States